One thing you can count on with the Detroit Lions is that they are never, ever boring. Follow the latest news including injuries, roster moves and more here daily from Oakland Press beat writer Paula Pasche. Plus you'll find regular commentary about the team.

10/05/2008

Lions-Bears postgame thoughts

Wow. Where to begin. The Lions were utterly atrocious, even embarrassing in Sunday's 34-7 loss to the Bears. It was their most lopsided home loss since a 41-9 defeat to Indianapolis on Thanksgiving Day 2004, and in many ways it was worse.

The Lions still haven't scored in the first quarter this year (38-0). They had minus-4 yards of offensive in Sunday's opening period and gained negative or no yards on their first four offensive plays. Worst of all, coming off a bye week, they looked lifeless and unprepared.

If you missed it, Detroit used some no-huddle offense Sunday and moved the ball effectively every once in a while. More often than not, they stubbed their toe with penalties or missed assignments. Jon Kitna was bad again (8-of-16, 74 yards), and he was benched at halftime with a case of back spasms for Dan Orlovsky.

Orlovsky was no better. He threw an interception returned for a touchdown on his second pass of the game and so wildly overshot one fourth-quarter pass that referee Scott Green had to announce there was no intentional grounding because "the quarterback was not under pressure."

It's hard to imagine things getting better anytime soon. Kitna said he'll re-assess his back later in the week, and Lions coach Rod Marinelli was non-committal on who his starter will be next week against Minnesota. No. 3 quarterback Drew Stanton warmed up at halftime. I don't imagine the Lions want to start him on the road, against a good Minnesota front, but it might come down to that.

Receiver Roy Williams said Kitna should remain the starter going forward despite his subpar season (six turnovers, five TD passes).

"No question about it," Williams said. "He's our guy."

Williams also voiced support for Marinelli, who answered questions from reporters in in an uncomfortable postgame news conference with vice president Tom Lewand standing a few feet to his left.

"I stand behind Rod all day long," Williams said. "That's my guy. He don't need to change nothing. I don't know what it is, but Rod is the guy that guy, he's the coach that everybody respects."

Lewand wasn't as supportive. Asked if he believes Marinelli is the right man for the job and capable of turning things around, Lewand spoke of the "tremendous, tremendous respect" he has for a coach who will "continue to do things right." Never once did he say Marinelli will finish out the year.

I thought all along that would be the case, but I'm not so sure now. There's little Marinelli can do to save his job  offensive coordinator Jim Colletto deserves part of the blame for a horrific offense and the talent on the team is subpar, but Marinelli is out of scapegoats.

The Lions desperately need to trade Williams if possible to help the next the coach and general manager build toward the future. They need to start playing more of the younger players  Jordon Dizon, Landon Cohen, Stanton  immediately. And most of all they need badly to win a game.

That seems unlikely, but without a victory soon there's no telling how low this season can sink.

I don't see how the Lions can fire Marinelli anytime before the end of the season evaluation resulting in a new GM being hired. The new GM will want his coach, administrative management, scouts, and logically (if logic can be used in the same sentence as Lions football?) it wouldn't make any logical sense to replace one lame duck coach with a succussor lame duck coach.

Yes Marinelli and supporting coaches and supporting upper management are overmatched every day, especially gameday{s}, or draft day{s}, or signing a free agent day{s}, but the Lions strategically have no other choice than to finish the season with Marinelli at the helm. Replace Marinelli with Barry .... puhleeze, give me a break, the guy can't coordinate the defense, how's he going to coordinate the team?

The post season evaluation, in my opinion, can't miss in the hiring of the next GM. The GM, then can't miss in finding the right coach, a coach who can coach multiple strategies rather than just a West Coach offense or a Tampa 2 defense. The next coach must be able to coach with flexibility to match both the offense and defense systems with the team's best abilities, rather than deciding its the Tampa 2 defense only, and we'll go out and try to get players experienced with that system.

The next GM must be a talent evaluator Phd. The Lions have a lot of contracts ending at year's end, most of which will be resigned - some of which won't, so match the players abilites with a system{s} rather than trying to fit the players into a set system.

Everyone knows the Lions are bad, but the current bullheaded coaching strategies must come into consideration in "the Lions are bad" evalutation. Colletto offensive coordinator trying to be a Martz clone {not seeing it so far}, Barry trying to be a defensive coordinator {not seeing it so far}, Kwan trying to be a special teams coordinator {not seeing it so far, although the special teams were the best unit on the field today}, Shawn Jefferson trying to be a receivers coach {ain't seeing it,}.... you get the drift, we haven't a chance, 0-16 is looking more probable with each dismal performance.

Bobby Layne curse ends this Monday, we play the Vikings on the road next Sunday, my guess nothing will change for the Lions. So 7 days from today it will be the same old same old for our beleaguered Lions without any realistic hope of improving until the hiring of the next GM.

About Me

Paula Pasche, a veteran sports writer, covers the Lions for The Oakland Press. She has written a book, "100 Things Lions Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die" which is available at bookstores and on Amazon.com. She won first place for column writing from the Society of Professional Journalists in Detroit (Class B) in 2011, 2012 and 2013 and was The Oakland Press 2010 Staffer of the Year.